Since the Spanish health system established the health and medical procedures to adopt in any kind of accidents, various rescue methods are being used which infringe the basic rights relating to physical integrity and risks of infection among the rescuers giving assistance.
When a road traffic accident occurs, and depending on the circumstances of the accident and the urgent or the emergency situation of the accident victims, the way of acting in the corresponding rescues must be such as to minimise the risks and dangers both to the accident victim and the rescuer. When a person is involved in a road traffic accident there may be risks such as the vehicle in which the accident victim is present may begin to catch fire or fall down a ravine, or other circumstances which make difficult to control the situation, so that in order to rescue the accident victims a method called the “Reutex manoeuvre” is known and is being used.
Said Reutex manoeuvre is entirely manual, involving full contact between the rescuer and the accident victim which cause inconveniences such as the possibility of infections.
The application of the Reutex manoeuvre comprises the following:
The patient is inside the vehicle, and the first thing that must be done is to free his/her feet so that they do not become trapped between the pedals of the vehicle. Next, the rescuer takes with his right arm the left arm of the patient. Said arm of the rescuer is passed below the right armpit of the patient and the rescuer grabs the wrist of the victim tightly with his right hand. Then the rescuer passes his left arm below the left armpit of the victim, holding firmly the chin of the victim. The rescuer places the chin of the victim next to his own face to maintain direct contact with the victim, without protection from blood, perspiration and the breath of the victim in order to ensure as much as possible a cervical control. Then the rescuer carries on his shoulders the weight of the victim and lifts the victim and when the victim is removed from the seat of the vehicle, the victim can be pulled and removed from the vehicle to a safe distance.
This conventional method of rescuing accident victims has disadvantages relating to insufficient cervical immobilisation of the accident victim, considerable discomfort to the rescuer and the risk of infection from diseases.
It is not known from the state of the art any device or a corresponding method for rescuing people in life-threatening situations such as the device and method provided by the present invention.